Kevin Orton
Indicted along with the promoters and sellers of Teletek was a Salt Lake City accountant named Kevin Orton, whose role in the scheme was described by prosecutors to the "Las Vegas Review-Journal" in October 1999 as "paying bribes and operating the principal stock and bank accounts used to carry out the scheme. " (1) He was convicted on charges of racketeering, securities fraud, and wire fraud and sentenced to about nine years in prison. He had already started this sentence when he was named as a defendant in an SEC civil case against the Draper, Utah-based Intelliquis International Inc., a penny stock that was delisted from the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board for failure to file reports with the SEC as required. In the financial statements it had filed, for 1999 through 2001, the SEC alleged that the company had overstated its revenues by 37% and its shareholder equity by 49%, much of this due to the company's policy of treating the transfer of products to consignment dealers as completed sales, a practice not consistent with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) because of the uncertainty as to the ultimate sale. Intelliquis's auditor--Kevin Orton--was accused of allowing the company to issue the financial statements with this inappropriate accounting treatment.
Jones, Jensen & Company
According to information in an SEC administrative complaint in a separate case, Kevin Orton had been a partner in the Salt Lake City accounting firm of Jones, Jensen & Company, which seemed to be the auditor of choice for more than a few penny stock issuers that were later named in federal civil, criminal, or administrative actions. The name partners in the firm--R. Gordon Jones and Mark F. Jensen--were cited for lapses in auditing standards in other penny stock cases, including Pan World Minerals International, Dynamic American Corporation, and Sky Scientific.
